Most prior art covered soft articles such as plush toys having an animal shape or another shape are made by hand stuffing cotton, foam, or another soft filler into a permeable cloth cover. In view of the manual labor involved to provide the stuffing, such covered soft articles are relatively expensive to manufacture and are not evenly filled so as to have uniform softness. Also, large toys in order to be able to stand erect must be stuffed so hard as not to have the desired softness. Attempts to overcome these problems have not previously permitted the use of in situ polyurethane foam molding within a permeable cover since the liquid foam mixture utilized to provide the foaming permeates the cover and makes it stiff and nonporous.
The most common approach to preventing polyurethane liquid foam mixtures from permeating cloth covers is to utilize an intermediate foam liner such as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,598 Neiller et al. However, such foam liners substantially increase the cost of the cover and thereby reduce if not completely eliminate the savings achieved by eliminating the manual stuffing operation. Another prior attempt to provide polyurethane in situ foam molding within a porous cover is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,932,252 Woods, wherein a coating which may be water based is applied to the exterior surface of a porous fabric cover prior to positioning thereof within a mold with the coating facing the mold cavity surface. However, this coating on the outer cover surface does not prevent the liquid foam mixture that is molded in situ within the cover from permeating the cover and thereby stiffening the cover and filling its interstices so as not to be breathable.
Laminating of a foam layer to another layer has also been previously done in the past and, for the most part, has been with the foam layer adhered to another impervious layer such as disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,625,499 Nebesar; 2,948,651 Waag; 3,499,065 Hoskinson et al; and 3,795,722 Sassaman. Laminating of a liquid foam layer to a porous layer also results in the foam permeating the porous layer. Such laminating is disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,629,678 Thompson et al; 3,440,307 Printz; 4,389,447 Disselbeck et al; 4,502,234 Schaefer et al; and 4,816,328 Saville.
Other prior art references noted during the investigation conducted in connection with the present invention but which are believed to be less relevant than the references discussed above include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,574,667 Fournier; 4,182,641 Fitts; 4,190,697 Ahrens; 4,214,994 Kitano et al; 4,389,454 Horacek et al; and 4,405,681 McEvoy.